I dont even know what to fucking say about this shit show. This whole product is so bad, I equivocate it to watching someone take your favorite card and purposefully ding all the corners. I have no idea why Panini wanted to make this product, based on similar cards from cards in the early 2000s, as it was a disaster then and its a disaster now.

Here are some of the previous cut sigs instead of sticker cards from Panini’s awful past:

2006 National Treasures Reggie Bush Cut Auto RC

2004 Leaf Certified Cuts Ozzie Smith Auto

2008 National Treasures Roger Staubach Cut Auto

2017 Immaculate Yoan Moncada Black Paper Cut Auto

Think about it. Some idiot is sitting at a conference table and actually has the balls to say out loud that using cut autographs from active players is a good concept to bring back over using stickers again. This is clearly the result of the product pool being extra shallow due to the horrible licensing guarantees that Panini “negotiated” with the league, and we are left to suffer through it at a whopping 150 bucks a box.

Seriously, look at the garbage Panini has brought to fill the gaps in the insane amount of sets they have to produce to hit quotas this year. Trash like XR, which is basically Absolute with more foil, and other stuff pales in comparison to actual winners like Impeccable and other sets they ripped off from former competitors.

Listen people, stickers suck, and I agree all card companies need to work on eliminating them at every turn. That doesnt mean replacing them with signed scraps of acetate or manupatches or black construction paper is the answer. Just work on disguising the use of stickers better, or release fewer sets that depend on them. One could argue licensing demands prevent fewer sets, but obviously this is not a better way of doing business.

Panini’s creative team has a lot to answer for, and this one just takes the goddamned cake. I literally cannot fathom how we got to this point, where a card company is willfully resurrecting concepts that were never successful to begin with. Its the hobby equivalent of trying to make another Howard the Duck movie. Im not kidding either, Panini is dead fucking serious here, and that should scare the shit out of people. They actually put this festering boil of a product on their calendar, and had no qualms whatsoever. I dont know how any company that puts the approved stamp on ideas like this still has a license.